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Humble, A Street Artist

S. Preston Duncan | March 12, 2020

Topics: Chris Tsui, fashion designers, Fat Dragon, Foo Dog, Giovanna Cordero, Humble, Lamplighter, modeling, Modelogic, muralists, Navid Rahman, Need Supply Co., RVA 39, RVA Threads, street art, Studio Two Three, Totokaelo, Veilance

RVA Magazine #39 is on the streets now! In this article from its pages, Humble, Richmond’s longtime muralist, clothing designer, and model, reflects on his journey from starving artist to modeling for professional shoots in the desert.

Listen to the Radio RVA Podcast Interview with Humble here.

Humbleness isn’t exactly a native concept in the fashion world. In the popular mythos of the “Starving Artist,” there’s rarely a tenement devoted to bedless clothing designers sleeping on a pile of blankets and ambition. But then, Richmond’s Kyle Harrell — better known as Humble — doesn’t quite fit in the glossy fashion box hawked by Hollywood scripts and reality television. 

That’s partially because Humble is a catalyst of artistic vision. Muralist, model, clothing designer, and event coordinator, he takes creativity as an articulation of Creative Class culture. He brings disparate sources of inspiration together into an identifiable expression of experience and taste. But the Virginia Beach native didn’t grow up on aerosol dreams or lofty runway aspirations. 

“The goal was to go to VCU, because I wanted to be an engineer. As soon as I got here, though, the culture was crazy. So I thought, ‘Fuck engineering. I don’t wanna do that,’” he said. “I started [studying] psychology and religious studies. I’ve been in Richmond for 11 years now, I fell in love with this city. We were hosting a lot of events, so I kind of got stuck here. ‘Stuck,’ not in a bad way — I just love this city so damn much.” 

Image via thisisnothumble.com

It wasn’t just Richmond’s underground music and art scene that kept him here, but the culturally-inclusive environment that encouraged Humble to carve out a name for himself by way of social immersion. 

Humble says his interest in art came about in a Van Gogh and Spirituality course at VCU. And it wasn’t so much the coursework as boredom; one day he started drawing portraits of his classmates. By the time he graduated, he found his priorities shifting. 

“Eventually that became obsessive. Around that time, I was married,” he said. “I had been playing around with the idea with her, that I wanted to make art. And she said, ‘You’re too smart to make art. You could do something better.’” 

The two had a falling out, and Humble spent 12 hours a day in the VCU library, pulling down books and drawing everything he could get his hands on. He also found himself divorced and living in Section 8 housing.

“Art was the only thing I had that was inspiring me to get up and do something,” he said. “It was a pretty depressive point in my life. It was tough, but it was for the better.”

Image via thisisnothumble.com

Around that time, Humble found commiseration and mentorship in Navid Rahman, an illustrator and muralist willing to share in poverty and inspiration. He moved into Humble’s apartment, where the two slept on the floor and practiced drawing. 

“That moment in time was definitely pivotal. Navid had just gotten out of a relationship. He was an artist as well,” Humble said. “In fact, I call him my master. He took me under his wing. So [he lived with me] free of charge… We’d wake up every day and just draw. He taught me a lot. He [wasn’t afraid to] say, ‘Yo, that looks like shit. Do it again.’ He’s definitely one of my best friends.”

Humble began to reconstruct himself from rock bottom. He emerged from a landscape of broken relationships and bank accounts, as a designer with credible life experience and a compelling narrative arc. None of this would have happened without Rahman, who brought him in on a mural project for the Lamplighter on Addison. The two spent the better part of a week pulling all-nighters while putting the piece up in the bathroom.

“I would work a double at Alamo, drive across that damn Leigh Street Bridge, and we’d stay up until 6 or 7am, then I’d go back to work,” Humble said. “It was all his art direction and style. I was laying down lines, but that sparked something. It lived in the space.” 

That project was what made Humble decide to take his work in a larger direction. Together with Rahman, he strived to find more work and create a portfolio as a foundation for their careers.

“From there, I started reaching out to mad people. At the time, I didn’t know how to paint. I had never played with color,” he said. “We were doing black and white stuff, and that’s when I switched to painting. I met up with Chris Tsui, who owns Fat Dragon and Foo Dog. He set us up on our next piece, which ended up being huge.”

Up to this point, Humble had never touched spray paint. He and Rahman mapped out a mural spanning the side of the Fat Dragon building, and improvised their vision for it. They completed it with little more than a mental image and an electric lift. 

“We didn’t really know what we were doing at the time. Chris was cool about it, too,” Humble said. “We did a giant anime dragon on that wall. It’s different, and not a lot of people are into that. From there, our next gig was Foo Dog. We did the patio; the giant anime girl with chopsticks and the dragon coming out. That was the start of it — so our street art and painting, in general, has gone about five years strong.” 

Image via thisisnothumble.com

It was during this formative whirlwind of creative development that Humble began designing and manufacturing clothes, on an almost-literal shoestring budget. His target demographic consisted of the Richmond skate and music scene denizens who attended his parties. He saw it as a way to make money from his art and promote his work. 

“Learning how to screen print, I started out in the bathroom at my house, exposing [prints] in the sun. It was chaos,” Humble said. “From there, I worked with RVA Threads, who had a screen printing studio in his basement. He took me under his wing and showed me how to do everything.”

When Humble went to Studio Two Three to start making clothing, the time came to find a name for his clothing brand. He still remembers the conversation with Rahman that would eventually define the company.

“Navid said, ‘You should call it Humble. People call you humble about the fact that you’re doing this, but you’re doing it low key. You’ve got talent, but you don’t really flash it.’”

While he was selling shirts at house shows, an underground fashion scene began to emerge. Separate from the institutional culture at VCU, these DIY designers developed a collaborative environment that led to an unforeseen shift in Humble’s trajectory. 

“At Studio Two Three, that’s when my homie Chase Beasley (of Crud City) was kicking around. He was just starting up art as well; I was teaching him how to screen print. Earl Mack with Chilalay was in the studio. So we’re buzzing around, sharing ideas. We were doing underground fashion shows, building these runways,” Humble said. “It was crazy how much people were willing to put these things together. We had no idea what we were doing, because none of us were part of the school. Our fashion shows were ridiculous — but people showed up, and then we partied our asses off. That energy, now that I think back on it, was very, very alive. There was always something to do every weekend, and it had something to do with art, music, fashion. We were doing a lot, especially for that community at the time.”

During those early days at Studio Two Three, Humble’s interest in fashion deepened — until, as fate would have it, an opportunity presented itself at Lamplighter. 

“I was sitting outside smoking a cigarette, and this blonde girl came up to me and said, ‘Hey, do you live in Richmond? You’ve got a good look. I would love for you to come by the studio and take some test shots.’” 

Image via thisisnothumble.com

Having never thought of himself as a model, he agreed to pose for a shoot to generate income. Without even knowing the photographer’s name, he eventually learned that the gig was for Richmond’s own Need Supply Co.

“I was nervous. I’m a humble dude, I don’t see myself in front of the camera. I still don’t,” he said. “It’s still always weird to me… But I went, and they started booking me all the time. They were flying photographers from L.A. to shoot me here in Richmond. And they were paying me out the ass.” 

While modeling for Need Supply Co.’s lookbooks, Humble connected with modeling agent Giovanna Cordero, who transferred to the agency Modelogic shortly after. The two kept in touch when the Need Supply Co. shoots died down.

“I focused on my art career for a while, then Gio hit me back up to say, ‘Hey, I’ve got this gig I think you’re perfect for.’ Ends up being Totokaelo. Super high fashion stuff,” he said. “I’ve been working with them for a couple years now, and they’re incredible. Eventually Modelogic got privy, so I got signed. I’ve been doing gigs in Baltimore, New York, down here. The money is insane. It’s what’s kept me in there — it’s given me a look at the fashion industry that I wouldn’t have had access to otherwise. Seeing how things work, how to do photoshoots, garment instruction, what you can really do with fashion. It’s limitless.” 

A few months later, a small company reached out over Instagram. They turned out to be Veilance, a subsidiary of the Canadian high-end outdoor clothing and sporting goods company, Arc’teryx. 

“My agent calls me and she says, ‘Hey, they want to fly you out to Utah, pay for everything, pay you 4k per diem. You’ll be out there for four days.’ It was insane,” he said. “The first time I’ve ever been flown out anywhere for something like that, and we had private chefs catering for us.” 

The shoot was staged in the middle of the desert, “where NASA tests land rovers for Mars,” Humble said. He was the only American there.

“There was a guy from Russia, an incredible model-looking dude. I thought, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ There was a famous photographer from France that shoots futuristic technology stuff, and the whole crew is from Canada where Arc’teryx is based,” Humble said. “The hairdresser is good friends with Kanye. We’re all sitting around this table in the middle of the desert, sharing stories, and I’m just starstruck. I had taken a step away from clothing, especially creating, and over the past couple years I’ve been coming back into it through modeling, being re-inspired.” 

Image via thisisnothumble.com

True to his name, none of this has gone to his head. Humble’s plan now is to continue working with his community in mutually supportive, innovative ways; figuring out upon what great walls — both physical and allegorical — they may together make their mark. 

“I see it metaphorically as walking through the dark with a candle,” he said. “You are the light. You don’t know where you’re going. You might be blazing the way, but mostly it’s a crapshoot, because there are no answers to any of this. There’s no methodology that will make you successful. Just keep working, keep your head down, keep producing dope shit, and help your homies as much as you can. Help everyone as much as you can. I think that’s a really big thing, working together in the scene.” 

Top Photo via Humble/Instagram

Richmond Mural Project: Curator Shane Pomajambo talks early years, highlights, RMP 2017, & future plans

Amy David | August 23, 2017

Topics: art, art whino, Arts District, Broad Street corridor, graffiti, London artist, muralists, murals, Remi Rough, richmond mural project, RMP, RMP 2017, RVA ARt

In 2012, the city officially designated the Broad Street corridor as the Arts and Cultural District of Richmond. However, there was one problem, it wasn’t actually overflowing with either. The city had monthly First Fridays, Gallery5, and other small exhibit pop ups of course, but when it came to larger-than-life works of art Richmonders and tourists alike could cruise or walk down the street and admire, the Broad Street corridor was severely lacking.

This was right around the time DC’s Art Whino curator Shane Pomajambo was putting on his annual G40 art summit, a large-scale art exhibit which always has a different theme. The theme for the year would have been “The Art of the Mural” and was going to be in DC, but RVA Mag founder Anthony Harris got word of it and called him about the possibility of bringing it to the city.

“He was the one that said, ‘hey why don’t you come you come down to Richmond and I did the next day. I met with him, and we ran into Scott Garnett, of the Downtown Neighborhood Association and we talked,” Pomajambo said.

Pomajambo knew the city had just named the corridor as the Arts District, but like many residents felt it could be taken to the next level.

“I said, ‘well it’s good you’re doing an Art District, but if I’m driving around your arts district, I would never know it’s an art district because I don’t see any art,” he said. “I told them I was doing murals and I said, ‘wouldn’t it be amazing if you drive by and see murals, then you would know you were in an arts district.”

D*Face,108 N. 7th St. Credit: Richmond Mural Project

Thus, the inaugural Richmond Mural Project was born with a lineup of 10 artists from all over the world painting murals in different parts of the city. And it was only supposed to be a 30-day pop-up, but after hearing feedback from the community, Pomajambo said he knew RMP was an idea that had legs.

“When I was asking people for permission to use the walls, everybody was telling me the same thing how Richmond rocks; the food, drinks…but they all wished they had more feet in the streets,” he said. “Nobody wanted to be next to empty storefronts and when I heard that story over and over a lightbulb went off.  We can make this the largest destination for mural lovers worldwide and that’s going to bring people to Richmond…”

The idea was to have murals spread throughout different areas of Richmond instead of concentrated in one central area.

“Within 15 minutes, you can drive from Shockoe Bottom to the VMFA and get all walks of life and I found that intriguing,” he said. “Nobody’s done it like that.”

Ever

It grew year after and year and by 2016, RMP had brought over 50 national and international artists hailing from Poland, to Australia, to Hawaii, California, New York, Switzerland, Singapore, Mexico, Berlin and more with a vast array of artistic styles to the city, helping to put RVA on the map for murals. Not only that, but it increased tourism, gained national exposure, and reached its goal of 100 murals in five years. And for many, that would be enough. But for Pomajambo, he had bigger plans.

“A lot of people think that’s the goal, that you do 100 murals and the project is over, but that’s not the case,” he said. The short term goal was to achieve the tipping point and establish the mural project as a destination.  You need to continue being relevant, and how you continue being relevant is by continuing to bring the who’s who of the art world.”

The who and where of the sixth installment of RMP has been very hush-hush up until now. There were even some rumors of it being on hiatus this year, but for the 2017 installment, Pomajambo decided to go a little bit of a different way with the project.

“This year we’re going to be doing a gigantic mural at the VCU Honors Building,” he said. “They are working on a rebranding campaign, and the mural was the perfect opportunity to help with that. I’ve been working with Tom Klug {associate vice president, university marketing} and he’s been amazing…”

Klug came to Pomajambo about five months ago about changing the image of the Honors College, located at 701 W. Grace St., and the RMP organizer was delighted at the opportunity.

Greg Mike

“VCU changed Richmond, it’s a school town now and all the kids in the arts program that VCU has; so it’s really an honor to be associated and working with VCU because they’re such a big part of Richmond,” he said.

It also opened the door for RMP to expand its direction and brand.

“This is a perfect project for this year, this is why it’s not on hiatus because it’s now focus-centered, which means anybody calls me and they want it, I’ll go and help them with murals and change their branding or change their imaging or whatever it may be.”

The building is 10 stories high and RMP has recruited London abstract graffiti artist Remi Rough to tackle the job, which will begin this Thursday.

Remi Rough

Rough has been an innovator in the art community for over 30 years as a writer and artist. He is a founding member of Agents of Change (AOC), an international artist’s collective, and part of the abstract graffiti movement ‘Graffuturism’ and his work has been featured everywhere from Morroco, to Paris, Toyko, Los Angeles, Miami,  to DC, and New York.

“It’s graffiti and futurism together, which is the style of that movement, and he’s more fine art, which is really cool,” he said.

When it comes to the annual artist lineup, Pomajambo strives to include a variety of different types of muralists and artists from illustrators, to those focused on subject matter, style, execution, and scale.

Marka 27

“There’s like 12 different things people focus on when they do murals so I tried to do a cross-section of what’s out there,” he said.

With bringing 10 or so artists each year, and with so many different murals completed around the city, narrowing it down to favorite moments was a tough task for the curator, but he ultimately landed on the Etam Cru mural,“Moonshine”, depicting a woman in a strawberry jam jar, located on the side of a building on 1011 W. Grace St.

ETAM CRU

“It’s one of the highlights because I brought them to the US for the first time and that mural won top three murals in the world from Buzzfeed,” he said. “The month after they came to Richmond, CNN did an article on them which was huge, and now they’re catapulted to stardom so as a curator, when you choose people who are not as well known, it’s very empowering. so for me, after that, I made a decision not to fully focus on well-known muralists and really bring the next big thing up to Richmond because I think its another level of excitement.”

James Bullough

The popularity that RMP would bring is something Pomajambo knew from the very beginning, but the offshoot of events cropping up from it was a benefit he said he never saw coming. And now, with that traffic and development, Pomajambo said another one of his long-term goals is to figure out how Richmond can capitalize on the impact.

“It’s been this incredible influx of people doing stuff around the murals; bike there’s been races, there’s been scavenger hunts, there’s been bus tours, bike tours, everything you could possibly imagine,” he said. “That’s really important, this allows people to empower themselves to develop economy, develop businesses out of the project. For me, that’s been very humbling and amazing.”

Nils Westergard

Still, even with it being a widely well-received event in the city, every year Pomajambo said they worked with the community to help RMP evolve and grow.

“I had people telling me, ‘what about the women and I was like, ‘oh you’re right, and the following year we had three women,” he said. “We had people that said, ‘what about the local muralists and after that, we had one in the lineup. Every year, the project has changed a little bit, which I think has been for the better.”

Pomajambo is looking at the VCU Honors Building project as a case study for future RMP ideas.

“The main thing I’m trying to push forward with the Richmond Mural Project now is, we don’t really need to focus on the Arts District as much anymore, and that’s why I’m calling the next long-term goal, a vehicle for change,” he said.

He hopes to go to certain areas like Church Hill, Manchester or Scott’s Addition to launch smaller-scale mural projects there.

“If people rally behind a specific area than we bring the Richmond Mural Project to that area. If anybody needs this kind of help, the mural project is there for them,” he said.

According to Pomajambo, he wasn’t able to connect with Mayor Levar Stoney and the city to lock down the full-scale RMP project for this year, but he said he hopes to work with him and the city for Richmond Mural Project 2018.

“The city supports it obviously, but if we can get some funding, some sponsorships, and support, we can grow the number back up to 10 because I think it’s important to continue doing a big push for 10 muralists every year,” he said.

You can follow Remi Rough’s work on his Instagram here. And be on the lookout for an RMP book slated to come out through Schiffer Publishing sometime in 2018.

 

Muralists painting in the upcoming RVA Street Art Fest discuss their work and the festival’s impact on the arts scene

Amy David | April 21, 2016

Topics: Chris Milk, ed trask, manchester, muralists, RVA ARt, RVA muralists, RVA street art festival, Southern State silos

This Friday will kick off the third annual RVA Street Art Fest bringing together national and local muralists, sculptors and other artis
[Read more…] about Muralists painting in the upcoming RVA Street Art Fest discuss their work and the festival’s impact on the arts scene

RVA Mag #22: RMP 2015 artist Nils Westergard on street art vs. muralism, conveying emotions through images, and his plans for RVA

Amy David | November 9, 2015

Topics: muralists, murals, nils westergard, richmond mural project, RMP2015, RVA ARt, RVA murals, vcu

Nils Westergard is proud to be the first homegrown Richmond Mural Project artist.
[Read more…] about RVA Mag #22: RMP 2015 artist Nils Westergard on street art vs. muralism, conveying emotions through images, and his plans for RVA

The organizers behind the ‘Find Art Doors’ challenge have hidden one last door for RVA to find and planned a live auction on 10/24

Amy David | October 13, 2015

Topics: art, Art on wheels, Brown's Island, city art, Main Street Station, muralists, RAIN, ROSMY, RVA ARt, RVA artists, The VIrginia HOME, Tredegar, Virginia Supportive Housing, vmfa

Virginia Supportive Housing (VSH) and Art on Wheels have partnered to send Richmonders on
[Read more…] about The organizers behind the ‘Find Art Doors’ challenge have hidden one last door for RVA to find and planned a live auction on 10/24

RMP 2015: Japan’s MOYA fuses traditional Japanese style and street art to create a mural for RVA

Amy David | July 24, 2015

Topics: Japan, MOYA, muralists, Richmond murals, RMP 2015, RVA ARt

The Richmond Mural Project 2015 has begun and we’re here to help you learn more about the artist who will be adding to RVA’s already world-class collection of murals.
[Read more…] about RMP 2015: Japan’s MOYA fuses traditional Japanese style and street art to create a mural for RVA

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